In this Asia Thinker Series, Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Director, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Benjamin William Cashore, at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) of NUS, chairs an important discussion with speakers Dr Rosa Rolle, Senior Enterprise Development Officer from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); Ms Poh Bee Ling, Director, Agri-technology and Food Innovation Department, Urban Food Solutions Division, from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA); and Assistant Professor Sonia Akter from LKYSPP on whether food technologies hold the answers to the global food security challenges of our time.
A growing world population, supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, as well as the global repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine war – the world has experienced concerns over food security more profoundly in just these recent years.
Beyond addressing the shorter-term stop-gap measures through policy and global coordination, thought leaders, policymakers and scientists are also accelerating developments in food technology in an attempt to future-proof this critical issue.
Managing Technology
Affordable, equitable and sustainable access to food – these are the ideals that Dr Rosa Rolle of the FAO call to mind, when looking for answers to global food security. Yet, ideals remain just that – goals to work towards.
The channels forward must also evolve with the times. “Until the end of the 20th century, the food processing industry’s focus was on lowering the cost of food, with little attention to address sustainability issues,” explains Dr Rolle, “today, however, consumption patterns and agriculture systems are contributing to high rates of food loss and waste.”
In this light, working towards food security requires “[the] need to design, or re-design, technologies to become more energy efficient, to reduce cost of food production – such as simple re-designing of tunnels, using solar energy to dry foods, as what is employed in Pakistan” holds due merit.
“Another targeted approach is to look at the sustainability of the energy resources used – such as switching from carbon-based to renewable energy as solar, hydroelectric or turbine to generate electricity,” she elaborates.
Adopting a multi-pronged approach, Dr Rolle also states the need to “continue to innovate. According to [research company] McKinsey, if consumers switch out 10 – 15 per cent of meat consumption with alternative proteins – such as plant-based or lab-grown ‘clean meat’ by 2030, we reduce total greenhouse gas emissions, water used and land use by the agriculture industry; and lastly, we need to address waste management through the upcycling of unavoidable food waste.”
The caveat is, of course, that “investments are necessary to look into these types of technologies – for research and infrastructure … as well as supportive policies.”
The Singapore Food Story
In Singapore, food security is a matter of national security. Ms Poh Bee Ling from the SFA explains, “As a small city-state with limited resources, Singapore’s food supply has always faced challenges such as global food supply fluctuations as we import more than 90% of our food.”
“On one hand, increasing global population and incomes place pressure on food demand; on the other, urbanisation competes with agriculture for land and other agricultural resources. This is exacerbated by climate change which increases the frequency of extreme weather phenomena which adversely impacts production yields. Adding to this uncertainty, food safety risks are increasing, and food supply chains are getting more complex,” elaborates Ms Poh. To strengthen Singapore’s food security against this backdrop, SFA, Singapore’s lead agency for food related matters, adopts a multi-pronged strategy.
The first is a “grow local” prong to help mitigate against supply disruptions to import sources. An ambitious ‘30 by 30’ goal has been set to build the capability and capacity of Singapore’s agri-food sector to produce 30 per cent of its nutritional needs sustainably by 2030. To do this, technology and innovation will be key. The agri-food industry in Singapore will need to be highly productive, climate-resilient and use sustainable technologies. It also needs to tap on research and innovation to plug gaps that existing technologies cannot meet. Under the Singapore Food Story R&D Programme, the Singapore government has invested S$144 million into research in sustainable urban food production, future food such as alternative proteins, food safety science and innovations.
The second prong looks at diversification of import sources, to reduce reliance on any single supply source. Today, our food supplies come from more than 170 countries and regions around the world. This ensures that disruptions from any single source does not affect Singapore too severely, as importers can turn to alternative sources to maintain stability of our food supply.
The third prong involves growing overseas – by supporting local companies to expand and set up farms overseas. These farms can then reap economies of scale from the larger markets beyond Singapore and potentially export food back to Singapore.
In addition to these prongs, Ms Poh also highlights the importance of continual nurturing of a local talent pool pipeline to ensure that Singapore’s agri-food industry remains vibrant.
The Promise of Technology
For LKYSPP’s Asst Prof Sonia Akter, technology represents a good hedge against geopolitical uncertainties, especially as rising food nationalism have threatened food supply and production. According to Asst Prof Akter, the poor who spend most of their income on food purchases can be most disproportionately affected.
“Food protectionism is when major food exporting countries impose restrictions to protect own nation’s supply, which can be a complete ban or a quota. It is a strategy used by governments to protect local consumers to mitigate against local price hikes,” she recaps. Singapore was hit by protectionism policies thrice: during the 2007-08 food price crisis, then during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and again this year (2022), arising from the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Agri-food technology, in her opinion, is an area of great promise. “Investment in alternative protein, especially in light of chicken import ban from Malaysia – into lab-grown meat and plant-based protein food – is important, as is incentivising a diversification of diet among consumers.” However, she cautions, “this is still nascent technology, [and we have] yet to ascertain consumer preference and affordability concerns.”
“Food waste reduction is [another] area with a lot of potential where we can save a lot, making even more economic sense than ever before,” she adds, “[we can] improve shelf life by investing in biotechnology and infrastructure (transport, packaging, storage), while on the household level, we can look to change consumer behaviour in planning, shopping, and consumption of food.”
Finally, the enormous possibility of blockchain is yet to be harnessed. “Blockchain technology in agri-technology today is worth S$200 million and is expected to exceed S$1 billion by 2028. It can certainly improve supply chain efficiency,” she says. Blockchain can also aid agri-technology by overcoming market fragmentation and to improve trust and traceability.
Age of GM crops and Lab meats
In the Q&A, Prof Benjamin Cashore highlights several audience questions on consumer preferences and changes for GM food and lab-grown meat.
Responding, Ms Poh and Dr Rolle agree that as food insecurity grows, there is a necessity to start considering other options. Asst Prof Akter adds that genetically modified (GM) crops can hold significance because food bio-technology can also lengthen shelf life to reduce food shortage and wastage especially in poorer countries. As for lab-grown meat, Asst Prof Akter observes the scale is so small at this time that more research is needed for consumer taste and understanding. On the other hand, she adds “Singapore should be one of the countries where lab-grown meat research can be an important food source, not in four to six months but possibly five to ten years in importance, if it happens to be that consumers can accept this.”
Multi-channel method
Prof Benjamin Cashore sums it up aptly, observing the “multitude of interventions required” for food technology to be a meaningful answer to the food security concern. He adds that in policymaking “you can’t always base your policy choices on today’s preferences when these could change in the future”.
As to the near-future of lab-grown or the politically contentious genetically modified (GM) foods, he articulates the caveat that “energy required to produce [lab-grown foods] may negate the initial concerns with agriculture and environment costs”. He says, “there are these trade-offs – solve one problem and another might grow”, such as with GM foods, “the concern is”, he notes, “whether its production will create super-pests that will be even more problematic.”
He concludes, “There are no low-lying fruits here but reducing waste is a win-win solution; a behavioural question worth tackling as well”.
Watch the full discussion on Food Technologies: Necessary, Unique or Challenging?